Ferreira, Wilson Plan Building Project Over the Summer : Hockey: The list of things to do includes elevating the talent level of the team.

What’s next? Where do the Mighty Ducks go from here? To the playoffs next season? To the Pacific Division cellar? Or somewhere between again?

The Ducks tied the Florida Panthers for the most victories by an NHL expansion team, were playoff contenders in March, made a killing on duck calls and punched up a dreary pro sports scene in Anaheim.

They also missed the playoffs, were swept, 6-0, by San Jose, won only 13 of 41 games at home and failed to sign Paul Kariya.

That’s the framework, good and bad, from which the Ducks will build their 1994-95 season.

It could be a boffo sequel, although General Manager Jack Ferreira refuses to relax.

“The second year is always the toughest,” he said. “Some guys get complacent. We can’t sneak up on people.”

With that in mind, Ferreira will soon intensify contract talks with Kariya and two other unsigned draft picks, Valeri Karpov and Nikolai Tsulygin.

Kariya, who will play for Canada in the World Championships later this month in Italy, attended his first Duck game last week in Vancouver and was present for the season finale, Wednesday against the Canucks at The Pond of Anaheim.

Ferreira said he’s close to signing Karpov and mentioned Tsulygin’s name that day to reporters more times than in the past six months.

“We’re not kidding anybody,” Ferreira said. “We’ve got to elevate our skill level. Some of the answers are already in the organization. We want to have a good draft and explore the free-agent market.

“I’d like to get a little quicker and to get two or three more young prospects in the organization . . . and get the Kariyas and Karpovs signed.”

If they can’t sign Kariya--and Ferreira has said he’s worried Kariya might play in Europe next season--here are other options.

The Ducks acquired forward Maxim Bets, 20, in the deal that sent veteran defenseman Alexei Kasatonov to St. Louis on March 21. Bets had 116 points (46 goals and 70 assists) in juniors for the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League this past season.

They also signed Mike Maneluk, 20, of WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings on Jan. 28.

“Maneluk (dominated) the Western Hockey League,” said Pierre Gauthier, Duck assistant general manager. “He’s a pure goal-corer with a lot of speed.”

There are rumors that Florida, which has the No. 1 pick in the June draft, will select junior defenseman Ed Jovanovski, leaving high-scoring Czech forward Radek Bonk, 18, available to the Ducks, who have the second pick.

Whatever happens in the off-season, don’t expect the Ducks to swap their tight-checking style for a more wide-open game.

“We need to improve our overall speed, get more mobile on defense,” Ferreira said. “But we’re not going to do it and sacrifice size. You get Kariya and Karpov in, and you get smaller. You don’t want to get too small.”

Don’t expect any changes in goal. Guy Hebert and Mikhail Shtalenkov kept the Ducks’ goals-against average less than 3.00, one of the league’s best. Ferreira liked Hebert and Shtalenkov so much, he traded Ron Tugnutt to Montreal for forward Stephan Lebeau on Feb. 20.

“There’s no question we started in the right direction,” said Hebert, who was in goal for 20 of the Ducks’ 33 victories.

“It puts a little pressure on the coaching staff now. Every guy will come back with a lot more enthusiasm. And there are a lot of new guys ready to jump on the bandwagon. The new guys are going to come in, and that’s going to help us in the long run.”

When the season began, Ron Wilson wondered what the future held for him in his first NHL head coaching position. Friends cautioned Wilson about coaching an expansion team, pointing out the obvious difficulties associated with getting a new team off the ground.

Take it, they said, and it might be your last NHL job.

“I hope it is,” Wilson said. “I hope I’m here 10 years from now.”

Wilson and assistants Tim Army and Al Sims drummed one simple notion into the players’ minds throughout the season: play hard.

It was often the only way to keep up with more skilled teams.

The Ducks’ skill level will no doubt rise with the addition of Kariya and Karpov and the continued development of top scorers Terry Yake (52 points) and Bob Corkum (51). But count on Wilson continuing to hammer on their work ethic.

“I found out hard work almost makes up for a lack of talent,” Wilson said.

Imagine a better combination of grit and skill, because that’s what the Ducks have in mind for the future. You can expect the most dramatic changes among their centers and wings.

According to Yake, more internal competition will make the Ducks better.

“If somebody (new) beats someone else out (during training camp) that makes for an improved team,” he said.

Yake hopes he’ll better his 52-point total, which he called a disappointment.

“I bought a lot of (video) editing equipment, and I want to spend the summer assessing my game,” he said. “The bottom line is I want to make an improvement. I want to get 80 points, 100 points next season.”

And then there are the stumbling blocks Yake said cost the Ducks a playoff berth--21 one-goal losses, an 0-6 series record against the Sharks and a 14-26-2 home record (including a neutral site victory over Dallas in Phoenix).

“Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes,” he said. “We need to win more of the one-goal games. We’ve got to find our way around that. We’ve got to find our way around San Jose. We can’t lose six games to anyone. The difference was going 0-6 against San Jose.”

There’s no way to gloss over the Ducks’ shortcomings this past season, only a chance next season to smooth out the rough spots.

“Next year, we’re going to look at, No. 1, making the playoffs and not just coming in eighth,” Yake said. “It will be more about getting into a better spot in the playoffs, like fifth or sixth.

“The expectations are going to be higher next year.”